Abstract
PROF. SCHIAPARELLI, whose death we briefly announced last week, for many years occupied a prominent position in the world of science. Half a century has passed since he began his career as second assistant in the Brera Observatory of Milan, and nearly as many since he was elected to fill the position of director. In that position he exhibited much energy, and increased the reputation of the observatory. But his greatest success came to him early, and though he worked long and diligently, giving evidence of patient industry and practical skill as an observer, he will be remembered mainly for having satisfactorily established the connection between meteors and comets. It was a brilliant discovery founded on acute penetration and sound reasoning. It was, moreover, a discovery that the public were able to appreciate, and by popular applause he was lifted at once into the front rank of astronomers. He was entitled to all the renown which he acquired. For though others may have entertained similar views and expressed them more or less distinctly, they fell short of demonstration. Prof. Kirkwood, for example, had put the pertinent question, “May not our periodic meteors be the débris of ancient but now disintegrated comets, whose matter has become distributed around their orbits?” At a moment when we are remembering with gratitude the eminent services of the distinguished Italian astronomer, there is no necessity to stir old controversies; but when so many, from the time of Halley, have been so near a solution of the puzzle, it may quicken our appreciation of his genius to remember that he carried the question one step beyond his predecessors, removing it from the grounds of conjecture to the certainty of conviction. In this connection it is not out of place to recall the remarkable series of letters that Schiaparelli addressed to Father Secchi in 1866, models of close reasoning leading to a successful result. But as is frequently the case when a brilliant discovery is made, it is possible to detect a certain amount,of luck contributing to the final outcome.
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P., W. Prof. G. V. Schiaparelli . Nature 84, 44–45 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084044b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084044b0